CARACAS, April 19. /TASS/. The United States abused its status of the host nation of UN headquarters while issuing visas to the Russian delegation to the UN Security Council, as visas were not issued to some members, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during his visit to Venezuela.

"As far as the visit to New York is concerned - yes, the visas were issued. But, as usual, the process was accompanied by abuse of the UN headquarters host nation status. They kept us waiting. They issued the visas at last, but not to all members of the delegation. Some staffers were not on the list. And, as you’ve said, no visas were issued to journalists," Lavrov said at a press conference on Tuesday following talks with his Venezuelan counterpart Ivan Gil Pinto.

According to the top Russian diplomat, the US side gave no explanations for the move.

"No explanations were given, but it is also of no surprise to me. If you look at how the United States and, in fact, all Europeans approach the implementation of the ‘freedom of press’ principle in practice, you will see that this principle is applied only in a one-sided manner. In many Western countries, offices of numerous mass media outlets that are present here have either been closed or are being subjected to discrimination in different forms. This is sad," he added.

Russia holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in April. As part of Russia’s presidency, Lavrov will attend Security Council sessions on April 24 and 25.